Directions: Bangor Township is North of Bay City. From I-75 take the Wilder Road exit and turn East on Wilder Road. Go to the 3rd traffic light on Wilder Road and turn left on State Park Drive. Landmarks at this corner are: Clark gas station, Rite-Aid drugstore and Hot-N-Now burger joint. Go to second light (about a mile) to Wheeler Road and turn right. You can see the fire station off to the right from the corner at Wheeler Road. The Bangor Township Hall is located behind the Fire Station. Talk-in on 147.360 no PL & 442.500 PL

Minutes for the Annual General Membership MARC Meeting of, September 11, 1999

Meeting convened by President, Kelly Karpp

Minutes of June meeting were read by the President and approved as read.

Treasurers’ report was given by David Oesch

Current balance of $1,765.32

Reporting 45 new members.

Report was approved.

Old Business: There was a lengthy discussion of positions with many questions of the interference complaint lodged with the MARC by the Gladwin group against the USECA 147.180. Compromise was agreed that Gladwin would try more power via an amplifier and that USECA would reduce power. Both parties were to report findings to K5EKP, the 2m coordinator, and continue to try and resolve the problem with a report of efforts and results to be presented at the December Meeting by all parties.

New Business: There was a brief discussion of entertaining a motion to amend the By-Laws to allow meetings on days specified by the Board rather than Saturday as prescribed in current by-laws. General consensus was reached that the only meeting this really effects is the Annual Meeting. Motion passed.

Discussion of the need to revise/update the Standards and Procedures. Also tabled for future action.

Election of Officers was held for the offices of Vice President, Director, Treasurer, and Secretary. On a motion of N8SA seconded by N8TSJ for election of Bill Gilbert, K5EKP as Vice President unopposed, K5EKP was elected to that office by acclamation by eligible members present. David Oesch, N8BIT, running for Treasurer unopposed, was elected to that position by acclamation by eligible members present. A secret ballot of eligible members present resulted in the election of W8YUC, Ron Gordon, to the office of Director. Ron was opposed in this election by KC8IAQ, David Cunningham. There were no candidates for the office of Secretary and the position remains open.

Next meeting was scheduled for December 5, in Bay City and a tentative location of Oakland County is being considered for the March meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 3pm by motion of the President and acclimation of those present.

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK

We have a motion and a second reference Article VI Section A will be voted on at the December meeting to amend the Bylaws as follows.

The Annual Meeting shall be held on the first Saturday or Sunday following the first Monday of September of each year.

Update references the uncoordinated USECA 147.180. USECA was told at the September meeting MARC would place a hold on returning the frequency back to the pool until the December meeting, to allow them the time necessary to correct the interference conflict with Gladwin. At this time, our 2-mtr coordinator Bill K5EKP is working with Bill N8SA to resolve this problem to the best interest of MARC and USECA.

We have had a demand from a new member for a welcome package. To my knowledge, MARC has never had such a package. The MARC Board will be asking your opinion on the release of paid up members names and addresses as part of said package providing such is approved by the members. The present MARC Board does not intend to release it unless directed to do so by the MARC members.

Kelly

TREASURER'S REPORT

At the present time we have $1,989.32 in our bank account, We have been very lucky this year in that we have been able to get almost all of our printing of the newsletters without cost to MARC. We also are very lucky in that we have Joel who has stepped in as Newsletter editor and turns out a very nice newsletter. We have come a long way in the last year. Thanks to the hundreds of hours Bruce has put in we have the best data base that I have seen in the 20+ years that I been going to the MARC meetings. I have only one request as treasurer, when sending in dues please place on the check or other paper work what year you are paying for, frequency of local system, email address, and any other info you would like us to have. It seems that on at least two occasions we have gotten two checks from the same person or group. We contacted them and added it to their next years dues, but it sure would help to have this information written on the check.

We have a board that is really interested in doing things the right way. We are no longer flying by the seat of our pants and making every decision based on who’s friends are asking for things that is not quite right. But as in the past we can only do as well as, you the ham public let us. We can only work with the information that you give us. We can only make coordinations with good information. While most hams seem to send in good information, there is a lot of false information coming in every day. We are working for all of you and will continue to do the best we can. Please, if you know of any system that is not operating by the standards or has changed locations please let us know. These systems do not affect the board at all but sooner or later there will be one pop up next to you or across town on your Frequency and then for some reason it seems to take on a whole new meaning.

Dave Oesch, N8BIT

DIRECTOR’S REPORTS:

I am pleased to report that the MARC has been able to consolidate all of the historical data bases into one file. Herculean efforts on the part of Bruce, N8UT, accomplished this. MARC has cleaned up some of the ‘paper’ repeaters in our files, thus permitting new ones to be coordinated on those frequencies. We still have some way to go to clean up all of the issues that we inherited from prior boards. This one, frequency coordination, has been the number one priority for us. Now we will be able to look at some of the other issues our membership has raised.

It is important to understand that the MARC Board is being responsive to those who have elected us. Each Board member is a volunteer and many of us have other volunteer responsibilities as well as the work ethic. It is easy for those who are not on the Board or have not volunteered to assist the Board to ‘throw arrows’ over an issue that they feel is important. All issues are important. They need to be addressed and this Board will do so. I ask that each MARC member give their Board an opportunity to meet the needs of its constituency. We are doing so in the time we have available for this volunteer position.

Finally, repeater trustees have had the MARC somewhat of a negative opinion in past years. This Board has established work rules that brings all information to each of us. There are no hidden agendas. Continue to give us your trust and support and you will see an outstanding MARC that has risen from its history.

Joel Goldberg, W8HIU

Upon retiring in February of this year, I've had more time to devote to my hobby of over 32 years. I look forward to and welcome the challenge of being one of the Director of MIARC. I also want to thank those of you who voted for me to fill this position. I've been a multiple repeater owner and member of MIARC for over 14 years. There have been a lot of changes in those 14 years and a very marked improvement in MIARC within the last few months. It is my hope and intention to continue to see these changes and improvements.

Ron Gordon, W8YUC

COORDINATORS' ANNUAL REPORT AS OF NOVEMBER 3, 1999

2 Meters: 8 successful coordination/re-coordination actions were recorded this year.

Over 180 letters have been sent out since June 1, 1999 addressing the paper repeater problem. 57 of these letters were formal decoordination letters sent by Certified Mail. Resultant E-mail correspondence for the period is well over 1000 messages. Quite a number of these Certified letters dealt with more than one repeater. As of November 10, 23 repeaters have been formally decoordinated and an equal or greater number of frequency pairs have been voluntarily surrendered. There may be a few more in the future, but for now we can honestly say that we did what you asked us to do. The paper repeaters that we knew about and those that were reported to us, have been cleaned up. The only way we will know if there are more out there, will be for you to report them to us. We can't correct what we don't know about.

ARRL Directory Notice:

The report that will go in to the ARRL in December for inclusion in the 2000 ARRL Repeater Directory will be posted to the MARC website before the December 5 meeting. There will be no further changes to the report once it is posted....it's too late. This year, because we changed the reporting date to July 15, entries with a last TDS date in the years of 1997, 1998, and 1999 will be included in the ARRL report for the 2000 Directory.

Next year...the 2001 Directory will contain ONLY entries with reports dated from 1999 and 2000. If you wish to maintain your listing in the Directory, make sure your updates are current.

Database Manager's report

646 total entries as of November 3, 1999.

191 of those entries are for Links and Controls

455 entries dealing with repeaters.

-23 of those repeater entries are administrative records of decoordinated machines

432 total working entries

50 repeaters are still in a delinquent reporting status and all but 3 or 4 of these have had decoordination letters issued.

The database entries are 87% current as of November 3. This figure and the number of decoordinations will rise dramatically before the December meeting as the outstanding decoordination letter 30-day deadlines mature. Current projections are that the database will be 94-98% current by the December meeting date.

Dues Reminder:

Just a reminder that the traditional time that MARC dues are paid is January of each year. The dues are still only $15 per year and are payable to MARC through our Treasurer. (See form at the end of the Newsletter.)

Dave Oesch,
4585 Green Meadow Lane
White Lake, MI 48383.

Check the mailing label on this Newsletter or the September Newsletter (which was hard-copied to everyone) for the date we last received dues from you. If you don't have the information, e-mail Bruce at n8ut@area-ham.org and he will tell you when we last received dues from you.

REPORTING NOTICE:

The MARC will no longer send out a mass mailing of blank TDS forms/reminders for bi-annual renewal updates. Over 95% of all TDS reports are now received electronically through our web site. It is not sound economic thinking or good management to squander our meager financial resources on outmoded USPS mass mailings which produce less than a 5% overall response. The vast majority of Trustees who receive a paper TDS form wind up filing electronically anyway.

We will still send out paper forms ... but only upon request, to those who do not have Internet access.

We strongly remind all Trustees that it is the Trustee's responsibility to see that the TDS updates are filed as required. It is the Sponsors' responsibility to double-check their Trustees' actions in this regard. It is not, and never has been, the responsibility of the MARC to chase down Trustees and beg for TDS updates. 75% of all the time dedicated by the MARC leadership has traditionally been spent chasing delinquent Trustees and the problems that the delinquent data causes in effective coordination and spectrum management. This is an unnecessary waste of time and resources. We will no longer do this.

The policy and rule is this simple: If TDS updates are not filed by the Trustee as prescribed, we will revoke the coordination of the repeater as provided for in the Standards and Procedures. This is not something new. The rule has been on the books for many years. We are simply going "by the book" and enforcing the rules.

YOUR REPEATER COUNCIL BOARD

President: Kelly Karpp, KB8RWG

4321 Bamfield Road
Glennie, MI 48737
(517) 735-2091

Vice President: Bill Gilbert, K5EKP

3426 E. Sage Lake Road
Lupton, MI 48635
(517) 473-4586

Secretary: Open

Treasurer: Dave Oesch, N8BIT

4585 Greenmeadow Lane
White Lake, MI 48383
(248) 887-6639

Director: Joel Goldberg, W8HIU

6762 Red Cedar Lane
West Bloomfield, MI 48324
(248) 360-2092

Director Ron Gordon, W8YUC

7172 Sharp Road
Swartz Creek, MI 48473
(810) 655-5391

Coordinator for 2 Meters & Down:

Bill Gilbert, K5EPT

3426 E. Sage Lake Road
Lupton, MI 48635
(517) 473-4586

Coordinator for 22 & Up and Acting

Data Base Manager:

Bruce Winchell, N8UT

5354 Baker Road
Bridgeport, MI 48722
(517) 777-8147

BALLOT

Question: The Annual Meeting of the Michigan Area Repeater Council be held on the first Saturday or Sunday following the first Monday of September of each year.

Your vote: YES [ ] NO [ ]

(The original wording of our By-Laws is: "The Annual Meeting shall be held on the first Saturday following the first Monday of September of each year."

DUES

Membership dues for year 2000 are to be paid by January 1, 2000. Please include the following form (or information) with your payment.